User Interface Factors that Impact Flow in Prominent Media Streaming

Abstract

The use of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video continues to rise due to the diverse number of television (TV) and movie titles that are offered, which allow users to easily stream media, often commercial free, across various electronic devices. Streaming and viewing TV shows or movies offers a low effort route to decrease boredom and to increase positive emotions such as enjoyment or interest for users. Before viewing a title, a user must first navigate a streaming service’s web pages to locate a preferred media title to view. A user’s navigation activity seemingly meets the criteria to reach a Flow State, an extreme form of engagement that is marked by perceived time distortion, perceived effortless concentration on an activity, which is completed by the user automatically and efficiently. The goal of the current study was to investigate how streaming webpage features (e.g., auto playing video clips, ambiguous user location information) impact a user’s effortless concentration and loss of self-awareness Flow State components. Results show that the webpage feature differences are primarily minute and do not significantly impact Flow. Specifically, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video webpage differences did not significantly differ in user’s effortless concentration and loss of self-awareness within a navigation context. However, participants on average did experience moderate levels of Flow, suggesting that Flow can be experienced while navigating a streaming service to select a show to watch. Supplemental considerations, methodological limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.